Today’s Selection Of Opinions And Editorials

Medicaid Deal Should Be Open To All States Sioux Falls Argus Leader As a United States senator, I've said that I will put Nebraska first, Nebraska always but not Nebraska only. That remains the case with questions about how the Senate health care reform bill dealt with an underfunded mandate for expanding Medicaid (Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., 1/12).

Excise Tax On 'Cadillac' Plans Is A Bad Idea The Washington PostThe idea of an excise tax on "Cadillac" health-care plans sounds like magic. It would raise almost $150 billion over 10 years to help finance health-care "reform"; it would be paid by employers, insurance companies and "the rich"; it would help "bend the cost curve" in the future; and for all I know, it might help regrow hair and cure warts. But if you look at the actual workings of the plan, you come away far less impressed (Allan Sloan, 1/12).

IRS To Control Your Health Care The Washington TimesCongress is creeping closer to passing a government health care bill without telling taxpayers how they are going to pay for the crippling bureaucratic expansion. The reason Democrats are so secretive is that they are ramping up the power of the Internal Revenue Service to make Americans' health care decisions for them (1/12).

Will President Obama Defend The 'Cadillac Tax' To Cut Health-Care Costs? The Washington Post The most likely compromise on the tax would raise the threshold even higher, for everyone. That would be a mistake. It would reduce the impact on controlling costs and drain badly needed revenue; a $26,000 threshold would bring in about $100 billion less through 2019 than the existing $23,000 level. Also counterproductive would be any move to further loosen the indexing and let the threshold grow more quickly. The point, after all, is to try to keep the growth of health costs as close as possible to the overall rate of inflation.

When Buying Votes Sells Out Lawmaking Process The Bismarck Tribune North Dakota and other rural states have long suffered an unfair reimbursement under Medicare. One thing health care reform should do is fix this inequity. The North Dakota congressional delegation has worked to do just that, authoring what's been called the frontier provision that would apply to states in which at least half the counties must have a population under six people per square mile -- South Dakota, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota (1/12).
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